US Open: Rain falls on Andy Murray's parade as Venus Williams knocked out

Updated
Thu 29 Aug 2013, 2:50 PM AEST

Photo

Venus Williams reacts after slipping on the court during her second round match against Zheng Jie.

Getty Images: Matthew Stockman

Defending US Open champion Andy Murray was plunged into a nightmare scheduling scenario on a rain-ravaged Thursday in New York which saw two-time champion Venus Williams slide to defeat.

Third seed Murray had been slated to play his first match almost 48 hours after second seed Rafael Nadal, viewed as the most likely contender to triumph this year, had started his campaign.

But Murray's scheduled start on Arthur Ashe Stadium was pushed back because of a four-hour rain suspension.

That delay was made worse when 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez got bogged down in a first-round dogfight in the same arena.

It was a development which would have only served to darken Wimbledon champion Murray's already tetchy response to his Wednesday (local time) start against French veteran Michael Llodra, tweeting his thinly-veiled frustrations at the schedule.

I'm playing my first round match at the us open at 7pm on a wednesday...

Andy Murray @andy_murray

The delays did little to stop the reigning champion though. Murray comfortably overcame the Frenchman 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 to set up a second round match-up with Argentine Leonardo Mayer.

Williams, the US Open champion in 2000 and 2001 and a seven-time grand slam singles title winner, went down in a three-hour second-round clash to tenacious Chinese player Zheng Jie.

Two-time major semi-finalist Zheng advanced to the third round by outlasting the American 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5) in a victory she called "unbelievable".

"Today was a tough match for me. It's unbelievable I can beat her," said Zheng, who next faces Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro.

It was not a great day for the Americans with retiring crowd favourite James Blake going down in a five-set epic to big-hitting Croatian Ivo Karlovic.

The 33-year-old New York native looked set to progress after he won the first two sets but the six-foot-10 Karlovic, on the back of 38 aces, came back to win the match 6-7 (2-7), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-2).

Murray not alone in being delayed

As a result of the downpours, organisers cancelled eight women's second-round singles matches and 20 doubles matches until Thursday.

One of those held over was the second-round clash between reigning women's champion Serena Williams, chasing a fifth US Open title, and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.

The rain meant some matches that started in the morning were still being completed as darkness fell.

Radwanska, who has never got beyond the fourth round, was on course for a quick-fire win over Torro-Flor, her second successive Spanish opponent, when she raced through the first set in just 21 minutes, losing just seven points.

But Torro-Flor, dressed in matching colours of blue and pink, made the Pole work for her win in the second set with three breaks of serve.

Radwanska weathered the unexpected storm, going through to a third-round clash against Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, capitalizing on her rival's 38 unforced errors and 10 double faults.

"Played first match and then I'm done. I can just relax, watch the others and do treatment and do whatever I want," said Radwanska.

Li, playing in her 30th grand slam and a New York quarter-finalist in 2009, clinched her third career win over policeman's daughter Arvidsson.

The Chinese star will next face 30th seed Laura Robson in a rematch of their clash in New York 12 months ago which the British player won.

"I'm going to go out there like I approach every other match and, you know, just try my best on court and try and played my own game," said Robson who was 89 in the world this time last year when she stunned Li.